ARGENTINA: The Bird

For several weeks Pancho, the
quick-tongued green parrot at Washington's Pan American Union, had
reviled an Argentine student named Victor Fernandez, who went there to
bone up on Latin American literature. One day last week Pancho
screamed: "You're a beef-eating gaucho." Fernandez, who had had enough
from one parrot, got angry and threatened to kill the bird.

Pancho squawked in alarm, flew into the second-floor room where the
Board was meeting. Some time later (so claimed Student Fernandez)
Pancho reeled out of the window, screaming: "I prefer death. It stinks
in there."...